{"id":6257,"date":"2017-02-12T11:18:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T11:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asoulwindow.com\/?p=6257"},"modified":"2020-02-05T21:29:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:29:03","slug":"travel-gone-wrong-why-4-months-of-non-stop-travel-made-me-hate-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asoulwindow.com\/travel-gone-wrong-why-4-months-of-non-stop-travel-made-me-hate-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"LONG TERM TRAVEL: WHY 4 MONTHS OF NON STOP TRAVEL MADE ME HATE TRAVEL!"},"content":{"rendered":"

TO TRAVEL FOR 4 MONTHS NON STOP! <\/strong>That was my travel fantasy when I was still working in Navi Mumbai in a 9 to 5 corporate job (Fine, make that 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. job). Sitting at my desk all day, I would dream of packing my bags to never return<\/strong>. My day dreaming would be assaulted with more official excel sheets (some of which I used surreptitiously for making my travel plans for next few months). Circa 2016! As I mentioned in an earlier blog, 2016 was a magical year for me travel wise. <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Me at Tiger’s Nest Monastery aka Paro Taktsang <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanks to my new freelance lifestyle, I had the freedom to realize my dream of traveling non-stop.<\/strong> I had accepted a bit too many professional invites for Press Trips and planned many of my personal travels as well. So from August 2016 to November 2016, it was non-stop travel for me for 4 months.<\/strong> Between this period, I showed up at my brother\u2019s house (I was staying with him till then) only for few hours. I would be back home only to wash and change clothes, rest or deliver already delayed projects before starting my next travel. I remember before my Amazing Trip To Ladakh<\/strong><\/a>, I took a post midnight cab to home, picked fresh clothes, unpacked and packed my luggage again and leave before 5 a.m. to catch flight to Leh<\/strong>. Within those few hours, I crazily packed my bag, answered mails and even submitted assignments. As I was unpacking and packing I realized much of my room resembled a war zone.<\/strong> I wasted a lot of time to find my things. Because I had had no time to organize my life! Managing my clothes was another task. At times I wished for outsourcing the laundry to service provider such as cleaning company Chicago <\/a>than to deal with it myself. Long term travel is definitely not easy!<\/p>\n

Also read – COMPLETE GUIDE TO PARO TAKTSANG AKA TIGER’S NEST MONASTERY IN BHUTAN<\/a><\/p>\n

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Offbeat Bhutan : Cycling in Unseen Thimphu <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since November end to present day (February 2017), I have been declining Media Trips because I want to concentrate on my writing, earning and other pursuits in life.\u00a0 I will start traveling again hopefully towards the end of February 2017. Till then, I just want to be at peace. I used my sabbatical from travel well to write more articles for print travel magazines<\/strong> and newspapers, to burn lot of food every day in my kitchen (I am a hopeless cook), play with my friend\u2019s dog, catch up on movies and dining with my friends, organize my desk. I caught up with food festivals, film festivals, book fair and restaurant hopping <\/strong>in New Delhi too. I had spent quality time at 2 of my friend\u2019s quiet homes and offices to write pending blogs. The month of December was most productive as I wrote around 20 blogs<\/strong> in December alone, most of it on Jordan <\/a>and Bhutan <\/a>etc. I also managed my finances and raised pending bills and earned more. I further augmented more wealth for me by landing up for assignments for me. On one of the days, I wrote 4 articles in a day! And oh, I caught up on a lot of sleep too. It was a creatively satisfying phase and I hope to repeat it again.<\/p>\n

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Click to read about the mystery behind Penis paintings on walls of Bhutan <\/a>near Chimi Lhakhang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have realized that I can\u2019t be location independent<\/strong>. I realized that my fantasy was just a fantasy! When I actually tried to live my fantasy of traveling non-stop, I ended up cancelling my own trips<\/strong>. After being on road and in air for so long, I had realized that I do like a base to come back to. (Coz <\/strong>\u092c\u093e\u092c\u093e \u0915\u094b base \u092a\u0938\u0902\u0926 \u0939\u0948). I also realized that no matter how much I love travel, it is not the only thing I want to do.<\/strong> I was itching to read lots of books, even newspapers (I am known for reading 2 months old newspaper even when not traveling), catch up on Bollywood and world cinema (I saw 15 Iranian films in between), meet old friends, spend time with parents and nephews and nieces. On most of my travels in this period I carried books to read. Not even once did I get time to<\/strong> read those thanks to my packed schedules during travel. I talk to my parents in Lucknow daily on phone since 2008, when I left home. I had to request them to hang up because I was too tired (mentally) to even talk)<\/p>\n

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I went to a remote village Sehore in Madhya Pradesh to see how Delhi girl Sanjana Kaushik<\/a> is changing lives in rural India.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even places like Ladakh, where I had planned 16 days trip started to make me restless. Even though it was my first time in Ladakh<\/strong>, I was constantly craving to get back home. This, when I don\u2019t even like Delhi or Ghaziabad, my adopted home since 1 year! I realized I started to enjoy travel less and on every travel, after a few days, there were moments when I just wanted it to end right there<\/strong>. Perhaps if I was a newbie traveler, I would have still enjoyed it but after having traveled to more than 150 destinations in India<\/strong> since 2008, most of it solo travel in shoestring budgets, I was near saturation. I didn\u2019t want to kill travel for me<\/strong> and since December 2016 I took a strict sabbatical from Travel. Not very long ago (Till just a few month ago), I used to crave for such a trip. From being Fired for travelling too much in 2015 to Tired of travelling too much in 2016, I had seen a paradigm shift in my travel aspirations within a year, <\/strong>a bit too fast. Henceforth, my focus this year onwards is to choose my official trips carefully.<\/p>\n